Richard Watterson
Richard Buckley Watterson is one of the main characters in The Amazing World of Gumball. He serves the role of the father in the Watterson family. Unlike the traditional father, however, Richard is not wise, nor is he a good role model for his children in any way. Despite his misguided advice and uncouth mannerisms, Richard has good intentions and loves his family all the same. Appearance Richard has a similar appearance to his daughter, Anais. They are both pink rabbits, but whilst Anais is very small and slim, Richard is large and overweight. He has long, straight ears, three short, black whiskers on both sides of his face, and unusually long eyelashes similar to Darwin's. It was revealed in "The Stars" that Richard is bald, despite the fact he is completely covered in fur. Even though he is unemployed, Richard is almost always seen wearing a work uniform, which consists of a long-sleeved, buttoned-up white polo shirt, light brown pants and a dark grey clip-on tie. His lower torso is big enough to cast a shadow on the upper area of his leg. As his wife and son do, Richard goes around barefoot, although when he is in his sleepwear, he wears brown slippers. He also wears a brown sleep robe. He occasionally wears light blue pajamas. In Season 2, his appearance changes slightly. The shadow under his belly becomes much lighter, his eyes and overall body become a little rounder, and like Anais, his ears are shorter than they were in Season 1. Also, his tongue was changed from red to light pink, and the inside of his mouth is pink as well, as his son, Gumball, and has a pink nose, as his wife, Nicole. Also, he is a lighter pink than the last season, and his lower teeth are shown when he is talking, but in Season 1, his lower teeth are shown just when he yells. From Season 3 to now, Richard's eyes are permanently round like the rest of his family. However, he can sometimes be seen with his regular oval eyes. In "The Kids," it is revealed that Richard has ice blue eyes. He mentions in "The Cycle" that he is balding, and paints the bald spots pink to hide them. As a young adult, Richard wore an outfit based on the grunge fashion of the 1990's. This outfit consists of a red-and-black plaid shirt with white sleeves, a black t-shirt with a yellow smiley face on it (referencing the Nirvana smiley face T-shirt), and ripped blue-gray jeans. He also had stubble on his upper lip and chin. As seen in "The Choices," in his early adolescence, Richard had freckles, and wore a yellow jacket over a green sweatshirt, with blue jeans and a red and white hat with a blue heart on the front. During what was likely his middle school years, he wore a backward red-and-black baseball cap, a white T-shirt with the word "SK8" printed in red over a black design, a black long-sleeved undershirt, woodland camouflage pants, and black-and-white sneakers. He also had braces and had begun to develop stubble. In his later teenage years, as also seen in "The Choices" and in "The Cycle," he had acne and, like his early adult self, black stubble on his chin and upper lip. His outfit is basically a restyle of the outfit he would wear in his early adult years. He wore a black t-shirt with what resembles the Snaggletooth logo from the metal band Motörhead. His blue jeans were less ripped, and the red flannel shirt was tied around his waist. He also seemed to have a gold earring in his right ear. Personality Richard is the father figure in the Watterson family but does not seem to possess any responsibility or common sense. He is very childlike and lazy and is not a good role model for his children either. However, Richard genuinely loves his family, and has good intentions, despite his severe lack of intelligence and maturity as seen especially in "The Prank" and "The Authority." He also greatly enjoys eating, especially when it comes to sausages. As a result, he is overweight. His obsession with food can sometimes be his undoing, such as when he was supposed to help his wife in "The Spoon," but he ends up licking a sausage on the floor instead. He can also sense when there is toast nearby, as seen in "The Recipe." Due to his continuous hunger, he gained an instinctive-like nature, as seen in the "The Game" and many other episodes, where he runs toward any food he sees. Richard is very childlike and has been seen exhibiting childish behaviors in several episodes. His behaviors include believing ghosts, joining in some of Gumball's misadventures, believing in Santa, and much more. He also has a very hypocritical sense of humor. He enjoys pulling pranks and laughing at people, but hates it when others prank or laugh at him, saying that "it's only funny when it happens to someone else." The motive for Richard's personality was shown in "The Authority," where it was revealed that Granny Jojo sheltered Richard his entire life, leading him to grow up as an unintelligent and lazy person. In "The Man," it was revealed that Richard's father walked out on him when he was young, claiming he was going out to buy some milk. Richard still believed it out of denial, even into his adult life. Despite his incompetency and childishness, Richard can occasionally spout out some good advice. In "The Gift," he was the one telling his sons to give Masami friendship (which they later did), and he manages to tell Nicole some very good, philosophical advice about life. It is also possible that Richard has a sufficiently sized brain, just he neglects to use it. As seen in "The Fuss" when he tried to think, a large cramping mass grew rapidly in size and made his veins stand out on his head. On a side note, he seems to be effeminate, as he is shown enjoying dressing like a woman in "The Finale" and "The Safety." In addition, he dresses like an old woman in "The Lady" to befriend some older women though he did not have to. He admits in the same episode that he feels he is not that good at being a man. Abilities Despite being incapable in most situations, Richard has a few skills of his own, such as being able to run very fast despite his weight, and speaking Spanish fluently as shown in "The Remote." Richard appears to be quite handy, as shown in "The Car," when he rebuilt the Robinson's car, albeit leaving it extremely fragile, and is seen using tools in "The Authority". Richard is also shown to be a terrible driver in "The End," when he had trouble driving the car off as he did not disengage the handbrake. After disengaging the handbrake (with the help of Gumball), he set the gear to reverse, hence crashing into the Robinsons' car. When he finally set the car to the correct gear (with the help of Gumball again), he crashed again. In "The Bumpkin," Richard went to every other place in Elmore but Idaho's home in an emergency. In "The Man," Richard is shown to be able to play the guitar, as in the flashback, when he plays a serenade to Nicole. Richard has shown that, despite his weight, he is significantly strong. This is shown in "The Prank," when he was able to break through their house walls, despite breaking a few ribs, yet, somehow endured it. This was seen again in "The Remote," where he was able to rip the door to their station wagon's driver seat right off its hinges. It happens again in "The Flakers," when he broke the bathroom mirror just by doing nothing more than throwing a bar of soap at it, and once more in "The Return," when he broke several windows just by punching them with presumably little or no effort. Relationships Enemies Trivia *He was originally a skinny blue dog but was later changed to a fat pink rabbit for unknown reasons. *He is incapable of keeping a job. As seen in "The Job," Richard maintaining a job causes the universe to be destroyed. *He has a spot on the right side of his waist that Gumball likes to poke while he is asleep. *He can grow a mustache through sheer force of will as revealed in "The Refund." *He is a pacifist, as revealed in "The Refund," when he was talking to the store manager. *He accidentally admitted that he likes Darwin more than his biological children in "The Goons." *He has been featured in the promo video The Amazing World of Gumball - Season 2 Sizzle, singing along to the show's opening theme. *He can speak Spanish as revealed in "The Remote." *He was based on Ben Bocquelet's father, Richard Bocquelet. *He is aware of his obesity and unhealthiness, as seen in "The Mustache." *According to this website, Richard's height is 6'4" (195 cm). *He has a special song that he sings or hums when doing menial tasks, most notably when bathing. *In "The Treasure," it is revealed that the reason for the Watterson family's financial trouble is that Richard spent all of the family's savings on a star, which later died. *As revealed in "The Authority," his dumb personality comes from his mother's poor parenting. *He thinks zebras are mythical creatures. *His outfit seen during Gumball's early childhood includes a shirt that is a reference to the "smiley face" t-shirts characteristic of the grunge band Nirvana and his flannel shirt resembled that of the former wrestler Mick Foley. As a teenager, he wore a t-shirt that bore a likeness to the Motörhead mascot, Snaggletooth. *Richard revealed in "The Roots" that his middle name is Buckley. *Richard is the one responsible for the events of "The Joy", since he gave Gumball and Darwin the Wonder Hug and it started the outbreak of the Joy Virus. *Nicole and Richard's wedding anniversary is on November 1. *Richard changes into a fine lady to get friends his age in "The Lady." It is the fourth time he dressed like a woman. The other episodes are "The Finale," "The Name," and "The Safety." *Richard is an example of the "Bumbling Dad" trope common throughout sitcoms and animation, along with the likes of Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin. Gallery Category:Males Category:Main Characters Category:Characters Category:Wattersons Category:Adults Category:Fathers Category:TAWOG Characters